Ok so after a lot of consideration and some research, I've decided to suck it up and get the Body Soldering Kit from Eastwood Tool. I have always felt that Bondo has it's place, but there is nothing like seeing an old Custom Merc or Caddy, or an old Hot Rod that could be left in bare metal, and still go toe to toe with any car with a trick paint job. Bondo to me has always felt like I was cheating.

Here is a few examples close to what I'm talking about:

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Bondo gets a bad name bud. Bondo is sold by auto zone and Walmart. Two places I would never buy materials to refinish a Auto of anykind. There are state-of-the-art compounds in the new Poly fillers out there that when used properly have great results. A body soldering kit is nice but, really overkill for what you are trying to achieve. Get some nice Platinum body filler made by 3M or Norton. It sands very nice with 80 grit paper and can be primed and painted over with just about anything.

Fwiw the soldering kit is just a waste of money. Remember your not building a 150k street rod. Like pictured above.

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K.C.C.O.

Carpe Diem

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Bondo gets a bad name bud. Bondo is sold by auto zone and Walmart. Two places I would never buy materials to refinish a Auto of anykind. There are state-of-the-art compounds in the new Poly fillers out there that when used properly have great results. A body soldering kit is nice but, really overkill for what you are trying to achieve. Get some nice Platinum body filler made by 3M or Norton. It sands very nice with 80 grit paper and can be primed and painted over with just about anything.

Fwiw the soldering kit is just a waste of money. Remember your not building a 150k street rod. Like pictured above.

I guess I was using "Bondo" as general term, and there is a lot of places I will end up using it, but the floor of the bed, right at the back where it will see the most use, isn't really a place I feel comfortable using it. Yeah I plan on using a spray in bedliner, but I'm expecting right there to see a lot of use, and it's one of those places that I can see the floor getting dented, and body filler cracking, then causing issues with the bed liner.

Part of the reason I want to try the body solder is my Dad. This is the first, and possibly only time I'm going to get to work on one of my big projects, let alone something that he can remotely relate to. Lead work is something he never got into, be it because he is his own worst critic and didn't think he would be any good at it, or maybe he never really had the oprtunity, you know with all that "lead poisoning" hoopla a few years back, or he just liked body filler, I don't know but I think doing the "lead" work with him would be a great experiance, for both of us. Some of his biggest idles created the term "Lead Sled", I want him to see that he is just as good as they are, or at very least, he's raised a son who isn't afraid to dive into the same kind of work that they did. For that, the cost isn't a factor.

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Ok, so I ended up getting a leading kit not a body soldering kit, lead was cheeper.

Here is what the bed looks like right now, yes I did go crazy with the welder at the seam, it was one of those nights where I really needed to just call it quits and pick it up in the morning, but was too stubborn to.
The plug welds across the very back and the tacks that you see further in are from the section of floor that I doubled up with the floor I sectioned out, and the original rear cross member. I will take a pic from the underside when I get a chance.

I'm really excited to see the leading. Take a bunch of pictures if you can manage it?

2010 Magnetic Toyota 4Runner Trail Teams

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The school has a kit car class and thats there project car, nothing special just a black gel coat finish and the stock running gear out of a Fox body mustang. It will never see anything outside of the school.

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Sorry guys been busy with school finals, and work. I'm getting promoted to be the Assistant Manager of a new store we have opening June 15th. So I've been really buisy with the extra hours at work to get me up to speed, classes at corporate, and since there still hasn't been a manager hired, going around making sales calls to all the shops in the area letting them know we are opening, and making introductions, since I will be one of the guys handling their sales.

I am going to try to head up Wednesday after work and work on the truck all day Thursday, and a few hours Friday morning before I have to head back to work that night. I'm going to try leading the bed, so I hope to have lots of pics for you Friday night.

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Ok guys sorry for the lack of updates, life has been busy as hell for me as of late. I have been working a lot lately, we opened a new store on the north side of town, and I was chosen to be the assistant manager and in charge of the commercial sale for the store. Needless to say, things have not gone as planned. At the time we opened the store I had more time in the company than every person there, combined, including the manager. The store that was going to be such a big opportunity for me went to hell because the manager they hired, just doesn't know what he's doing, and doesn't want to ask me how to do it. So instead of running the commercial side, I've been closing the store and doing the best damage control I can when I get there. Needless to say the new guy is going down in flames, and I've been told by several managers to be ready to take the store when he fails.

Other than that, no progress has been made on the MJ since this spring I hope to get back on this thing as soon as things calm down a bit here at the store, good news it anyway this goes, I'll be making more money.

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Alright finally got pics of the relocated crossmember and doubled up floor pan.
Here is what it started at
Spent some time grinding down the welds from last time, now that I wasn't feeling so impatent it didn't go so bad.
A mid-leading pic
This is about as close as I'm going to try to get it with lead, I might finish it with some body filler or even a high built primer, and then bed line the whole thing. It is a lot harder than it looks, especially without someone to tell you what you are doing wrong.
Where I left off
And this is a big reason why I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted done, my Dads 61 Chevy Impala. It had recently been rebuilt with a flat tappet cam. My dad isn't the most mechanically attentive person, and managed to wipe out 12 of the 16 cam lobes. With all that metal floating around in the oil, it nearly seized all the wrist pins, broke a piston skirt, trashed all the bearings, and scared the crank..... Moral of the story is, if you have a flat tappet cam, use oil with zinc in it! So after a fresh rebuild with a roller cam, and an Edlebrock Performer RPM intake manifold, the engine went back in yesterday.

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i saw this thread pop up and i said to myself "sweet, progress" only to be let down. much sadness rod, much sadness.

2010 Magnetic Toyota 4Runner Trail Teams

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